# Daylight Savings Time: Why is the US congress split on this matter **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 6, 2022, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456 "2022-11-06T04:36:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456/21 "2022-11-06T05:55:32Z")
Arizona here. We used to live in California and our feline overlords were very vocal about their displeasure regarding any time change that involved their gooshy fud. We love being smug about not changing our clocks and I really doubt that most folks here would be willing to change their clocks even once to get in step with all of the other states. As this is in the P&E thread, I am going to say that if the Lake ends up in charge, the trumpies would go full armed resistance over such a small, one time inconvenience. BTW, despite having nice long summer days, winter days are short. Today we got less than 11 hours of daylight and the days are going to keep getting shorter for a verrrry long time. Changing our clocks won’t do a thing about how fast the world spins. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456/22 "2022-11-06T05:59:46Z")
> [@JaneDoe42](#): > > Today we got less than 11 hours of daylight and the days are going to keep getting shorter for a verrrry long time. Such bounty! We got 9:48 of daylight today. We’ll bottom out at 8:30 around the solistice. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456/23 "2022-11-06T06:13:53Z")
To be the smart-ass in the room, why not split the difference and permanently change the clocks a half an hour? I set my blood glucose meter that way. It doesn’t auto adjust and isn’t required to be to the minute accurate so why not split the difference? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456/24 "2022-11-06T06:35:44Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > As I noted above there is actual harm from the time change. And yet somehow, the world survives. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456/25 "2022-11-06T06:38:13Z")
Usually we want to minimize harm and people dying. Otherwise, seven billion people could die and you’d be right. ---
**Author:** ![gnarator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gnarator/32/8266_2.png) [@gnarator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnarator)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456/26 "2022-11-06T06:46:44Z")
I was a kid, then, too. I remember walking to school in the dark. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456/27 "2022-11-06T06:50:48Z")
With a large enough group of people, any change in routine will have effects that appear major, but are actually well within the margin of error. Does changing the clocks have more of an impact than, say, a single rainy day? Rain also causes loss of work, thus having a major impact on the economy, and definitely is the cause of more traffic accidents than a lost hour of sleep. Are people in Arizona noticeably healthier than people in other states? More productive? Less accident prone? ---
**Author:** ![slicedalone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slicedalone/32/12515_2.png) [@slicedalone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slicedalone)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456/28 "2022-11-06T09:34:46Z")
In addition to the problems cited above, there are at least two days in the year that are messed up by confusion: “Oh, I’m an hour early [late]? That’s right, I got messed up by the time change, sorry” etc. If it didn’t exist, we would just treat waking up in the dark and darkness arriving in the late afternoon as a perfectly normal, natural consequence of summer and winter. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456/29 "2022-11-06T09:50:58Z")
> [@slicedalone](#): > > In addition to the problems cited above, there are at least two days in the year that are messed up by confusion: “Oh, I’m an hour early [late]? That’s right, I got messed up by the time change, sorry” etc. On the other hand, people talking about the time change and about their mistakes improves sociability and esprit de corps, which increases productivity. ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456/30 "2022-11-06T11:21:41Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > (…) seems there is actual harm: > > > When daylight saving time ends again in the spring, we’ll lose an hour. That may not sound like much, but studies have linked it to increased traffic accidents, higher rates of stroke, and a bump in [heart attacks](https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/guide/heart-disease-heart-attacks). And although many people take the extra hour this weekend to indulge in waking activities, [sleep](https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders-faq) experts say using that time for sleep could make a significant difference in your health. ~[SOURCE](https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/news/20211105/harmful-effects-of-daylight-savings) Actually, DST _starts_ in the spring. Perhaps the article’s author is sleep-deprived. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456/31 "2022-11-06T11:48:31Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > > [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > > > As I noted above there is actual harm from the time change. > > And yet somehow, the world survives. The proposal in Europe, for years now, is to force each country to pick a single time zone and stick with it. Last I checked the various legislation and memoranda, it seemed to be stalled. Does anyone know why? For the same reasons/related to the U.S. analogue? ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456/32 "2022-11-06T12:43:13Z")
> [@JaneDoe42](#): > > We love being smug about not changing our clocks and I really doubt that most folks here would be willing to change their clocks even once to get in step with all of the other states Unless you cross into the Navajo reservation, and then the time DOES change, until you cross into the Hopi reservation, where it doesn’t! For theast 10 years of so the spring time change has occured at the start of Spring Break in my district which has been a 10000% improvement. By the time we all go back, we have readjusted gradually. I am not sure how to scale up the “take a week off” plan to the rest of the country, but it does help. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456/33 "2022-11-06T12:58:08Z")
As has been discussed in the other threads … Each US timezone can be (very!) loosely modeled as a rectangle with N/S edges along lines of longitude and bounded by the Canadian border on the north, and the Mexican border or Gulf of Mexico on the south. The experience of both standard and daylight time is vastly different for the people who live in each of the 4 corners of a given time zone. There is no one answer that will keep everyone getting the kids to school in the daylight and also getting them home from work in daylight. And the farther north you go, the worse the problem gets. The people in favor of year-round DST are by and large the people who live near the western edge of their time zone. And the people in favor of year-round standard time generally live near the eastern edge of their timezone. The fact the Eastern Standard time zone is bigger than it ought to be makes the problem even worse. All of this is coupled to the strange idea that work happens while the clock says 8-4 or 9-5. Why are those magic numbers so enshrined that we have to change clocks to make the sunlight occur sorta synced with those numbers? Maybe it’s opening hours for schools and businesses that should change seasonally while the clock remains stationary. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456/34 "2022-11-06T13:27:43Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > The proposal in Europe, for years now, is to force each country to pick a single time zone and stick with it. That can work easily for smaller countries in Europe, but what about Russia? It’s rather large with a fair distance from the easternmost to westernmost borders. Although China is not in Europe, it is a large country, east to west, and has a long experience with operating under one time zone. [Here is a short read on China’s time zone](https://www.justlearn.com/blog/time-zones-in-china). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456/35 "2022-11-06T13:39:35Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I was a kid at that time, and I remember a lot of uproar over “kids are having to wait for school buses in the dark!” You mean, like they do anyway? ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456/36 "2022-11-06T13:46:27Z")
I normally get up around 5am. Just naturally. And since covid, work from home. Doesn’t matter to me one way or another. What about just splitting the difference, make it 1/2 hour and just leave it be. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456/37 "2022-11-06T13:58:15Z")
> [@slicedalone](#): > > In addition to the problems cited above, there are at least two days in the year that are messed up by confusion: “Oh, I’m an hour early [late]? That’s right, I got messed up by the time change, sorry” etc. Is this less of an issue than it used to be, now that so many people rely on smartphones and computers (that adjust automatically) to tell them what time it is? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456/38 "2022-11-06T14:01:55Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > do you want more daylight when you wake or later in the evening? Personally, I want it to be light when I wake up, but as long as it is light when I wake up, I want more daylight later in the evening. Which is the whole rationale behind Daylight Saving Time in the first place, as I understand it. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456/39 "2022-11-06T14:04:15Z")
Interestingly, Saskatchewan and Yukon do not switch their clocks. I guess they’re tough enough in those areas to send kids to school in the dark. Also, Mexico does not switch their clocks (and why would they, given latitudes of where most people live?), but cities along the US border do, to stay synchronized with nearby US cities, for commerce purposes. But, yeah, to the OP, lack of enuf interest and discomfort year round keeps things as they are. Inertia can be hard to overcome. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2022, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456/40 "2022-11-06T14:11:17Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Maybe it’s opening hours for schools and businesses that should change seasonally while the clock remains stationary. Right. As I said above, the solution for those looking for an “extra” hour of daylight for summer activities – the original purpose of DST – is to just get up an hour earlier in summer! Having businesses using “summer hours” simply institutionalizes that idea. Nominal business hours in summer would be 8-4 instead of 9-5 so there’s time for that midweek barbecue party or taking the kids to the park. I like the idea but it does have one huge downside. Time standards can be legislated, but business hours generally cannot, and if some businesses go with summer hours and others don’t, then it shortens the window during which businesses can assume they can communicate with each other, and it would also cause confusion for consumers trying to contact businesses. The existence of time zones already badly impinges on the span of this window. There would have to be very widespread agreement on the establishment of summer hours and their start and end dates. Or forget the whole thing and go with year-round DST, but then you have the “long dark morning” problem in winter. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456.md?page=3)